In Kosovo, Distrust of Hague War Crimes Court Simmers

Among those called in for interviews have been prominent political figures like Ramush Haradinaj, head of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK party, who resigned as prime minister when he was summoned, and the former speaker of the Kosovo Assembly, Kadri Veseli, who is head of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK.

Meanwhile in Kosovo, where the so-called 'special court' has never been popular because it is seen as an attack on the KLA's righteous struggle, frustration has continued to grow with what is seen as a biased institution that will only try ethnic Albanians while leaving many wartime crimes by Serbs unprosecuted.

For Bekim Gashi, whose mother and four sisters were killed by Serbian forces in a massacre in their village of Ternje/Terneon March 25, 1999, and whose remains are still missing, the special court is "unfair and farcical".

"It would be better for this court to treat crimes against humanity equally," Gashi told BIRN.

"Justice cannot be selective like this court's mandate is," he said.

Gashi has had some success in getting justice for his murdered relatives. In 2008, he filed a criminal complaint to Serbia's War Crimes Prosecution against the Yugoslav Army's 549th Brigade. In 2019, Belgrade Higher Court sentenced former Yugoslav Army officer Rajko Kozlina to 15 years in prison for the murder of 27 civilians in Ternje/Terne in 1999, while acquitting his superior, Pavle Gavrilovic.

But many other crimes committed by Serbian troops, police officers and paramilitaries during the Kosovo war have never resulted in indictments.

Gashi said that "it is undeniable that some KLA members were involved in crimes against minorities after the war, sometimes to take revenge and in other cases to take their properties...